Dry run

I’m off to do a dry run in my car to my work in a bit. I’ll be using the SatNav and hope it works as well as it did last time.

For the first 3 days of my new job, I took the train to work. I’ve never had to take a train into work in this region of the country as I’ve always driven in. Now, I know what local trains in or near London are like- late, but frequent.

After 3 days of taking the train, I’ve had enough. Late arrivals and departures. Stupid excuses- two days in a row, we were delayed because the train driver hadn’t arrived. What the fuck?

At the moment now, my SatNav has obviously got bored with the waiting and is “driving” the route itself. Better get going, I don’t want to it to do a HAL on my ass and start talking to me proper.

Weather sucks. This should be interesting.

Double film review

Last week i went to see 2 films. On Orange Wednesday I saw “United 93″ and on Thursday I saw X Men 3. Here are my reviews:

United 93
Premise- A docu-drama based on what happened allegedly to the 4th jumbo jet that crashed into a fields in Pennsylvania on that fateful day of September 11th 2001. For those who are unaware, the passengers on the plane banded together and overpowered the hijackers in their plane. Subsequently the plane crashed into a field, though it was allegedly destined for Washington D.C.

Verdict- The writer/director Paul Greengrass is well accustomed to doing political films and he did a very good job on on ‘The Bourne Supremacy’. He has a very distinctive style—very juddery camera shot and lots of POV shots–it’s almost as if you are in the plane with the passengers.

By having no stars in the film, it doesn’t detract from the storyline, despite everyone knowing the ending. The mundanity of checking in and getting on a plane by passengers and crew is shown, as are the hijackers pre-boarding routine- prayers and conversation is arabic with sometimes subtitles and sometimes not. The passengers of United 93 were aware of the 2 planes crashing into the WTC and knew what their fate would be and decided to intervene.

Some people will feel that this film should not have been made as it’s too early. I think it’s the right time and the film handles the fateful subject very well and sensitively.

The only negative thing i would say about the film, was the use of standard thriller music track to help rack up the tension—this was not needed, as the real situation itself was tense enough.

Verdict: 8/10

X Men: The Last Stand
Premise- This s’posed final film in the trilogy aims to tie up the X Men story arcs, whilst still leaving room for the inevitable spin offs, such as Wolverine.

Now I’ve read the gossip film sites and it seems as the the uber X Men fanboys hate this film because it’s rubbish compared to X2, plus the director is not as good as the previous one (i.e. Brett Ratner instead of Bryan Singer). Now I never read the comics as a kid, but enjoyed X1 and X2, but was interested in seeing X3.

So the basic premise is this: a cure for the mutant gene is created which makes said mutants normal humans. Magneto is pissed off about this as he feels it’s the equivelant of eugenics and genocide–so he wants to fight and kill people. Several notable X people take the cure, some die and there is loads of action.

Verdict- I thought the film was quite entertaining, though i do agree there were too many X Men in this film, so some characters hardly had any screentime. Angel, who was the catalyst for the creation of the cure is hardly used, Juggernaut is wasted, Jean Grey could have been more destructive rather than just staring all the time, although Famke is fit!

Rating- 6.5/10 (entertaining, but could have been better!)